A murky, wintry evening in Coventry but this was a performance to give Wasps supporters a warm feeling as they left the stadium on Saturday night after an epic contest.
Kearnan Myall, the Wasps lock in his distinctive orange scrum cap, battered his way over for the winning try in the last move of the match.
Wasps had recovered from going 10 points down in the early stages and it was rough justice on the Tigers, beaten last week by Worcester in the shock of the Premiership season so far.
Wasps leapfrog over opposition they have now beaten five times in succession and the victory was in no small measure to the efforts of their No8 and the man of the match Nizaam Carr, who recently became the first Muslim to play for the Springboks. Carr is here for three months and Wasps will hope he can stay longer.
Wasps were without their captain, Joe Launchbury, and Tigers were missing Jonny May, both nursing injuries from England’s meeting with Samoa last Saturday. Leicester still had four other England men in their starting lineup, though, and one of them made an early impression. After George Ford had landed an early penalty, the fly-half gained the Tigers an edge with a clever kick to the corner and from a lineout soon afterwards Mike Fitzgerald drove forwards and Tom Youngs crashed over for the first try.
Leicester were in the driving seat but in this fixture the marketing men nowadays call the M69 derby, it was not all one-way traffic. James Gaskell, the Wasps lock, made a decisive break, Dan Robson made another and the scrum-half gave the pass to Carr who motored over near the posts.
Carr looks a useful addition to a pack hit by injuries and he joined another flowing move that ended with the home pack muscling their way forwards and Robson snatching a smart try.
Life got not better for Leicester when Ellis Genge, another of last week’s England contingent, had to leave the field just before the break with an arm injury. After the interval Juan de Jongh escaped 10 minutes in the sin-bin when the centre nudged the ball forwards to halt a Leicester move and Wasps escaped three points when Ford’s penalty attempt struck the woodwork.
Their relief did not last for long and after a period of sustained pressure the Leicester wing Jonah Holmes, once a Wasp, squeezed home for a well-taken try in the corner. Ford could not add the conversion but the Tigers were back to within two points of the home side.
Holmes, making a first start for the Tigers, soon struck again when he intercepted a Willie le Roux pass inside the Leicester half and raced 60m to score his second try. The lead then changed hands again as Wasps moved the ball wide and Daly scored a wonderful try before Ford levelled the scores with a penalty. It was a match neither team deserved to lose.
Wasps: Le Roux; Wade (Bassett 74), De Jongh (Lovobalavu 64), Gopperth, Daly; Cipriani, Robson (Simpson 70); McIntyre (Harris 74), Johnson (capt; Charles 76), Cooper-Woolley (Moore 66), Gaskell, Myall, Haskell, Young (Willis 60), Carr
Tries Carr, Robson, Daly, Myall Cons Gopperth 3 Pens Daly, Gopperth
Leicester: Veainu; Thompstone, Tait, Owen (Smith 33), Holmes; G Ford, B Youngs; Genge (Mulipola 39), T Youngs (capt; Thacker 57), Cole, Fitzgerald (Wells 70), Kitchener, Mapapalangi (Williams 70), Evans, Kalamafoni
Tries T Youngs, Holmes 2 Cons G Ford 2 Pen Ford
Referee: Thomas Foley. Ricoh Arena 22,148.
Match rating 8/10.
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